Factors influencing the choice of internal medicine as a career among undergraduate medical students

  • Authors

    • Yamin I. Elzain
    • Awad Ali Mohamed Ahmed Alawad University of Medical Sciences and Technology
    • Waleed S. Khan
    • Hassan O. Khalil
    • Yousif M. Abdelrazig
    • Omer B. Ahmed
    • Omeralfaroug A. Adam
    2014-06-25
    https://doi.org/10.14419/ijh.v2i2.2918
  • Background: Medical students are the future doctors in any country. The lack or surplus of medical school interest in specialties influences and affects the health services in a country.

    Objective: In our study we evaluated the interest of medical students in Internal Medicine at a University in Sudan.

    Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in September 2013 at Faculty of Medicine, University of Medical Sciences and Technology (UMST), Khartoum, Sudan. A self-administered questionnaire was given to 887 male and female students enrolled at UMST.

    Results: A total of 887 questionnaires were handed out, of these 647 questionnaires were returned (response rate of 73%). Of the returned questionnaires 604 were valid and considered. Table 1 shows the general characteristics of the valid responses. The majority of our respondents were females 371 (61.4%) and 233 students were males (38.6%). There were 142 students interested in internal medicine. Of them, 95(21.3%) were in pre-clinical years, 47(29.6%) clinical, 25.3% were male and 22.4% were female. Amongst the subspecialties within medicine, 33.1% of students chose Cardiology as their first choice subspecialty, followed by Internal Medicine (26.8%), Neurology (13.4%) and Dermatology (11.3%).

    Conclusion: Medicine is second most popular specialty selected by medical students. The highest selected sub-specialty was cardiology. The main reasons for selecting Medicine as a career is personal interest, followed by being helpful to the community, and lastly job opportunities.

     

    Keywords: Career Choice, Internal Medicine, Medical Students.

  • References

    1. Abdulghani HM, Al-Shaikh G, Alhujayri AK, Alohaideb NS, Alsaeed HA, Alshohayeb IS, Alyahya MM, Alhaqwi AI & Shaik SA (2013): What determines the selection of undergraduate medical students to the specialty of their future careers? Med Teach 35 Suppl 1, S25-30.
    2. Al-Mendalawi MD (2010): Specialty preferences of Iraqi medical students. Clin Teach 7, 175-179.
    3. Al Kadri HM, Al-Moamary MS, Tamim HM & Al-Kadi MT (2012): Value of subspecialty experience in internal medicine undergraduate training. Saudi J Kidney Dis Transpl 23, 545-551.
    4. Babbott D, Levey GS, Weaver SO & Killian CD (1991): Medical student attitudes about internal medicine: a study of U.S. medical school seniors in 1988. Ann Intern Med 114, 16-22.
    5. Blue AV, Donnelly MB, Harrell-Parr P, Murphy-Spencer A, Rubeck RF & Jarecky RK (1996): Developing generalists for Kentucky. J Ky Med Assoc 94, 439-445.
    6. Burch VC, McKinley D, van Wyk J, Kiguli-Walube S, Cameron D, Cilliers FJ, Longombe AO, Mkony C, Okoromah C, Otieno-Nyunya B & Morahan PS (2011): Career intentions of medical students trained in six sub-Saharan African countries. Educ Health (Abingdon) 24, 614.
    7. Burke W, Baron RB, Lemon M, Losh D & Novack A (1994): Training generalist physicians: structural elements of the curriculum. J Gen Intern Med 9, S23-30.
    8. Chew YW, Rajakrishnan S, Low CA, Jayapalan PK & Sreeramareddy CT (2011): Medical students' choice of specialty and factors determining their choice: a cross-sectional questionnaire survey in Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Malaysia. Biosci Trends 5, 69-76.
    9. Creed PA, Searle J & Rogers ME (2010): Medical specialty prestige and lifestyle preferences for medical students. Soc Sci Med 71, 1084-1088.
    10. Flynn TC, Gerrity MS & Berkowitz LR (1993): What do applicants look for when selecting internal medicine residency programs? A comparison of rating scale and open-ended responses. J Gen Intern Med 8, 249-254.
    11. Gibis B, Heinz A, Jacob R & Muller CH (2012): The career expectations of medical students: findings of a nationwide survey in Germany. Dtsch Arztebl Int 109, 327-332.
    12. Gorenflo DW, Ruffin MTt & Sheets KJ (1994): A multivariate model for specialty preference by medical students. J Fam Pract 39, 570-576.
    13. Gotz K, Miksch A, Hermann K, Loh A, Kiolbassa K, Joos S & Steinhauser J (2011): [Aspirations of medical students: "planning for a secure career" - results of an online-survey among students at five medical schools in Germany]. Dtsch Med Wochenschr 136, 253-257.
    14. Julian K, Riegels NS & Baron RB (2011): Perspective: Creating the next generation of general internists: a call for medical education reform. Acad Med 86, 1443-1447.
    15. Linzer M, Slavin T, Mutha S, Takayama JI, Branda L, VanEyck S, McMurray JE & Rabinowitz HK (1994): Admission, recruitment, and retention: finding and keeping the generalist-oriented student. SGIM Task Force on Career Choice in Primary Care and Internal Medicine. J Gen Intern Med 9, S14-23.
    16. Maseghe Mwachaka P & Thuo Mbugua E (2010): Specialty preferences among medical students in a Kenyan university. Pan Afr Med J 5, 18.
    17. Mehmood SI, Kumar A, Al-Binali A & Borleffs JC (2012): Specialty preferences: trends and perceptions among Saudi undergraduate medical students. Med Teach 34 Suppl 1, S51-60.
    18. Peccoralo LA, Callahan K, Stark R & DeCherrie LV (2012): Primary care training and the evolving healthcare system. Mt Sinai J Med 79, 451-463.
    19. Rehman A, Rehman T, Shaikh MA, Yasmin H, Asif A & Kafil H (2011): Pakistani medical students' specialty preference and the influencing factors. J Pak Med Assoc 61, 713-718.
    20. Subba SH, Binu VS, Kotian MS, Joseph N, Mahamood AB, Dixit N, George A, Kumar P, Acharya S & Reddy P (2012): Future specialization interests among medical students in southern India. Natl Med J India 25, 226-229.
    21. Wright S, Wong A & Newill C (1997): The impact of role models on medical students. J Gen Intern Med 12, 53-56.
    22. Zborovski S, Rohekar G & Rohekar S (2010): Strategies to improve recruitment into rheumatology: results of the Workforce in Rheumatology Issues Study (WRIST). J Rheumatol 37, 1749-1755.
  • Downloads

  • How to Cite

    I. Elzain, Y., Alawad, A. A. M. A., S. Khan, W., O. Khalil, H., M. Abdelrazig, Y., B. Ahmed, O., & A. Adam, O. (2014). Factors influencing the choice of internal medicine as a career among undergraduate medical students. International Journal of Health, 2(2), 22-25. https://doi.org/10.14419/ijh.v2i2.2918